This invention relates generally to gift cards and more particularly to a device for holding and displaying gift cards while providing indicia and/or audio recordings selected or provided by the purchaser to personalize the gift.
Transaction cards, stored value cards, or gift cards as they are commonly called based upon their intended use, have become popular gifts. Gift cards typically comprise a stored value card whereby a certain cash equivalent value is encoded upon a magnet strip applied to the surface of the card. This stored value may be determined by the vendor prior to packaging and display for sale or, more commonly, is selected at the point of sale by the purchaser and loaded by the cashier using a magnetic card reader/writer. While popular, gift cards are typically provided with a generic and impersonal design, typically identifying the associated merchant for which the card may be used to purchase merchandise, and therefore are not personalized in view of the intended recipient.
Gift cards are often presented for sale on display racks in stores. The cards are typically attached to a gift card carrier panel or sheet via removable adhesive or plastic wrap and the carrier panel is hung upon a display stand peg. Alternatively, gift cards may be sold in a sealed packet. A given area of a store will only support a certain number and size of display stands, given store traffic and other considerations, which makes allocation of display space an important marketing decision that may require selecting only certain high selling cards for display. Display of other items in the same store area will typically reduce the substantially finite space available for displaying gift cards.
In addition to the above considerations, and to comply with certain industry standards, gift cards must fit within a set allocated space in pre-existing displays. Typically, a gift card carrier panel or packet must not exceed 5.25″ tall and 4″ wide. These dimensions are an industry standard and are typically non-negotiable. In addition, for gift cards that use barcodes the carrier panel must have a 0.75″ tall×3.125″ wide die cut window to provide access to the C128 barcode on the gift card when affixed to the carrier. In order to properly hang each gift card, carrier panels or associated hang tags are also typically required to include a J-hook hole (sombrero cut) with the dimensions of 1.875″ wide by 0.5″ high, and to be placed 0.1875″ from the top of the carrier panel or hang tag. Presently, the above requirements pertain to approximately 95% of all gift cards that are sold at retail.
Devices for recording, storing and playing back audio have been associated with greeting cards and the like, such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,577,018; 5,652,606 and 6,845,583. The audio circuitry typically includes a speaker that also functions as a microphone when recording a message, a control circuit, a memory circuit to provide random access memory, one or more switches, batteries to provide power to the device, and associated wiring and mounting hardware.
What is needed, therefore, is a gift card holder that may be used in association with a gift card to personalize the gift of the card to the recipient, either through selected indicia or audio of interest or entertainment to the recipient or through indicia or an audio recording provided by the gift giver, and which may fit within the space constraints already in place for gift cards mounted on carrier panels, or for gift card packets.